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BRAZIL: Biodiesel to Bring Electricity to Amazon Villages
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 31 , 2008 (IPS) - Oil from native tucuma, ouricurí and murumurú palm trees will be used to provide electricity to isolated communities in the depths of the Brazilian Amazon, which are too remote to supply with power by conventional means.
A research team is preparing to start producing biodiesel this year at a plant in Carauarí, a district of 25,000 people that can only be reached by a 1,600-kilometre river journey, or by a two-and-a-half hour flight from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.
Roberto Figliuolo, an expert with the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), told IPS that there are "10 promising palm species," which are found in "dense natural stands" and yield good quantities of oil. However, the team has worked most intensively with the tucuma palm because it is abundant and already has a partially developed production chain.
The fruit from the tucuma palm is widely eaten in the Amazon, where people eat the raw pulp or fry it in different ways, but throw away the kernel, "the most valuable part," containing 40 percent oil, Figliuolo said.
Tonnes of fresh tucuma fruit are brought daily to Manaus, a city of 1.7 million people, which is the major market for the product. This is hardly rational, as the pit containing the kernel makes up 80 percent of the weight of the fruit and is transported great distances to no purpose, Figliuolo pointed out.
Modifying this chain of production by extracting and packaging the pulp near the sites where the fruit is picked would lower the cost of transport and create more jobs and income in the communities that collect tucuma fruit, while providing a "more hygienic" product commanding higher prices, said Figliuolo, the coordinator of the Amazon biodiesel project which got underway five years ago.
This way, the kernels that are the source of tucuma oil would remain in the forest communities. However, "it is difficult to convince mayors and local authorities" to support these changes, which are the only way to bring electricity to the small, remote communities where "power lines are simply not viable," he said.
In Amazonas, the largest state, which contains the greatest area of preserved forests in Brazil, there are 4,600 isolated communities, only 32 of which have electricity, said Banny Barbosa, a chemistry student at Amazonas Federal University (UFAM).
Barbosa presented his research study on biodiesel from tucuma palms at the Jul. 13-18 annual meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC).
In Carauarí there are "more than 100" communities comprised of just a few families, municipal environment secretary Nelson Lacerda told IPS. Some larger settlements with around 100 families, like Roque and Nova Esperanza, where the biodiesel project is based, only have electric power for five hours every evening.
But using biodiesel instead of diesel fuel, these communities could have electricity supplies round the clock.
Oil from the tucuma and ouricurí palms has low acidity, and is therefore suitable for processing into biodiesel, said Lacerda, a chemist who left his master’s degree studies and the INPA research team to shepherd the project from within the municipal offices.
The main difficulty, he said, is breaking open the round tucuma pits to get at the kernel inside.
The pilot plant has been installed, but a number of things are required for biodiesel production. Ethanol, used to convert the oil, is being produced from sugarcane grown on "already deforested land" in Carauarí.
It was difficult to obtain equipment for small-scale production of ethanol and biodiesel. The machinery was transported in separate parts from Sao Paulo, and assembled on site without the help of technical experts, said Figliuolo.
Now the problem is to produce enough oil to feed the thermoelectric plant.
Financial and technical resources for making biodiesel in the Amazon are scarce. But it is necessary, because the diesel fuel currently used to provide electricity in remote communities is costly to subsidise, and the price is rising, along with the cost of oil and transport, which means supplies could eventually be cut off, Figliuolo said.
"When the technical, economic and environmental viability of these small local plants is demonstrated, they will mushroom throughout the Amazon, where oil-bearing fruits are plentiful," Figliuolo said.
The Brazilian government has for several years been implementing its programme "Light for All," with the aim of supplying electricity to millions of Brazilians who still do not have it. In more populous areas, extending power lines was the method of choice.
But in the Amazon region, an area of five million square kilometres with low population density, alternatives are being sought based on local energy production, such as solar or wind energy, or thermoelectric generation using wood residues or oil from native species.
(END)
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